Frustrated with long concession lines, fans who attend live sports events are willing to try a range of technologies to speed their food and drink purchases—and even spend more money if the process were to become more convenient, according to a new survey by Oracle’s Food and Beverage unit.

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US fans already spend an average of $42 per game on food and beverages, according to the survey, and 52% say they would spend at least $10 more if their wait times were cut in half.

The survey, the basis of a report titled “Stadium Of The Future: The Next Generation of Game Day Technology,” asked more than 2,000 fans in the US, UK, Germany, Australia, and Canada how likely they would be to use a variety of technologies for ordering, collecting, and paying for their hot dogs, beer, and other stadium fare. Even the least popular of the given options—payment by facial recognition—is something that 41% of US fans and 26% of fans in the other four countries say they would definitely or probably use.

For example, the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks lets fans at its new Fiserv Forum order a beer from their seats via its mobile app, using the “Coors Light Beer Button”—adding a sponsorship opportunity along with the fan convenience.

Fiserv Forum is the new home for the Milwaukee Bucks.

Courtesy of Fiserv Forum

Nearly 30% of fans globally ranked being able to stay in their seats as the most important way to improve their food and beverage experience. It’s a particularly important option for fans of sports, like soccer, with minimal break times. That may help explain why fans in the UK and Germany, where soccer (their football) is more popular, spend half as much as US fans on food and drink, according to the Oracle survey.

Among US fans who responded to the survey, 45% say they’ve abandoned a concession line at least once because the wait was too long. Nearly three-fourths would prefer to pick up their pre-orders from an express line.

Technology can also point fans to shorter lines, notes Simon de Montfort Walker, general manager of Oracle Food and Beverage. “You could have a huge line of customers in one concession but another food stand, right around the corner, is open,” de Montfort Walker says. “Computer vision can see that’s happening, and push messages out to a fan-base mobile app to invite customers to move to the shorter line. This smooths out the flow, improving the experience for the fans and concessionaires alike.”

Scoring the Tech Options

Some 45% of fans in the US and 36% of fans in the other four countries say they’re open to using fingerprint biometrics to make concession purchases. In Seattle, members of the CLEAR network, used at airports nationwide to speed passengers through security lines, already can buy food and drink at CenturyLink Field (home of football’s Seahawks and soccer’s Sounders FC) and T-Mobile Park (baseball’s Mariners) with the tap of a finger. It’s the first time in the US that biometrics replaces an ID for both age validation and credit card purchases.

Chase Center, upcoming home of the NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors.

Chase Center

Among other technology-based options, 41% of the fans surveyed say they would be likely to use drone delivery or voice-activated virtual assistants, while 37% would use augmented reality to view food options. Having food suggested by data analytics (30%) or social media activity (26%) are less popular options. Fans indicate minimal interest in being served by a robot.

Some stadiums around the world—including Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, Friends Arena outside of Stockholm, and Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, Florida—already are going cashless, accepting only credit/debit cards, mobile payment, or loaded-value cards. Among respondents to the Oracle survey, 66% of German fans, 56% of Australian fans, 53% of UK fans, 45% of Canadian fans, and 44% of US fans say they expect stadiums to be cashless within five years.

Peeling Off the Couch Potatoes

Improving the efficiency of their conventional concessions is part of a broader trend among stadiums worldwide to give fans a more integrated entertainment experience, including retail shops, beer gardens, specialty restaurants, kids’ activities, and other on-site attractions. The goal: Get fans off their couches and away from their big-screen TVs and into the sports venue.

For example, sports franchises that own retail and dining establishments in and around their stadiums and arenas are using a variety of applications with built-in data analytics to improve their service, manage their inventories, and maximize their time with fans as well as their profits. Down the road, a franchise might consider foregoing its $35 admission fee for a fan if it determines, based on an analysis of its aggregated data, that the fan will yield a $50 margin on beers, chicken wings, and other fare.

Or real-time data could show when a certain game is selling lots of pulled pork pierogi but peddling far fewer franks than expected. Connecting that data with a central sales app, the stadium could then send an offer for $1 dogs to all loyalty-program customers at that game, shifting the inventory load while offering loyal fans a perk. All of this data could then feed back into a financial and supply chain system to help manage future inventory.

Adding to the complexity is the fact that most sports facilities are used for other kinds of events—concerts, civic functions, religious gatherings—each with different vendors, patrons, and employees, Oracle’s de Montfort Walker explains.

“A stadium is a big enterprise typically constrained within a city block,” he notes. “It has an extremely complex supply chain, retail, logistics, entertainment, food and beverage. That facility has a very complex HR environment with a lot of staff turnover. It has logistics with lots of suppliers and perishable merchandise. It’s very competitive.”

Looking even further ahead, sports franchises have the opportunity to combine all of that data with lots of additional player data—the stuff of Moneyball—through an integrated app. That way, franchises engage the fan across both the stadium and game experiences, says Edwin Upson, vice president of Oracle’s Enterprise Cloud Architects group and himself an avid sports enthusiast.

“Think about it: When you look at fans at a game, half the time they’re staring at their mobile device,” Upson says. “How can we make the experience unique for that spectator? That’s how everyone wins.”